


i still get a little scared of something new

by Moondragon8



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Episode: e083 One Normal Town, Gen, Kinda?, Omniscient Cecil Palmer, Xenophobia, also just a warning: this fic deals with feelings of panic throughout! stay safe <3, mentions of blood and strex, night vales pretty fucked up but theyre trying! theyre changing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28182558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moondragon8/pseuds/Moondragon8
Summary: check the tags!!Cecil could occasionally, if he concentrated, get a general idea of how the public was feeling, and adjust his report accordingly. Sometimes, if the public was feeling particularly strongly about something, he didn’t even need to concentrate.But the mix of feelings he felt as soon as he stepped out of the recording booth that day was utterly sudden and overwhelming, not to mention scary.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	i still get a little scared of something new

**Author's Note:**

> “wow moon so do you only write episode 83 fic or—“  
> “YES. YES I DO.”

The day Desert Bluffs had merged with Night Vale had been a confusing day for, well, everyone, really, but Cecil thought maybe especially for him.

Cecil could occasionally, if he concentrated, get a general idea of how the public was feeling, and adjust his report accordingly. Sometimes, if the public was feeling particularly strongly about something, he didn’t even need to concentrate.

But the mix of feelings he felt as soon as he stepped out of the recording booth that day was utterly sudden and overwhelming, not to mention  _ scary _ .

He felt flashes of anger, or confusion, and lots of conflicting feelings towards the Sheriff and towards Dana, but mostly he felt fear.

Cecil sat down, bracing himself against the walls of the station, and tried to sort through and separate from Night Vale’s emotions. 

The smaller ones—the few people who were angry or confused or hadn’t heard the broadcast yet and were having unrelated feelings—were easy enough to set aside. And the feelings towards Dana and the Sheriff, as concerning as some of them  were, weren’t hard either. He had his own opinions on those two, which he only occasionally discussed on air, and once he very firmly reminded himself of that, those feelings settled to a dull whisper in the back of his mind.

The fear, though, refused to stop. It was akin to that time the Creeping Fear spilled out and went through town, only worse. Cecil tried to breathe and sort through it. If he justconcentrated a little harder, if he sort of mentally reached out to the fear and looked at it, maybe he could make out what people were afraid  of.

Cecil took a deep breath and—

_ Strex yellow Company Picnic blood StrexCorp eyes blood my friends my family Night Vale blood smiles purple fighting sandstorms smiles Strex Night Vale interlopers doubles Night Vale blood _

Cecil stood up, nearly slamming his head into the ceiling in his panic. Okay! That was a bad idea! Not doing that again, got it!

At least he thought he understood a little bit more now. Well, to be fair, he’d already guessed that the majority of the fear was because of StrexCorp and the...everything associated with it. That seemed pretty obvious. But Strex as they had known it was gone, in the hands of creatures who cared a lot about opera and even more about one of his best friends, so that was okay. It was a problem, but it was a problem he understood.

What he didn’t understand were the flashes of soft purple sky and his own town that he had—seen? heard?—experienced. Why would anyone be afraid of Night Vale? Anyone who wasn’t an _outsider_ , that was. 

The answer came as soon as the question. Desert Bluffs citizens. Or-no. If he was feeling their fear, then that meant that Night Vale had decided they were Night Vale citizens now. Night Vale citizens afraid of what was now their own town, and a town afraid of them.

“Oh, mysterious lights in the sky,” Cecil said, sitting down again and putting his face in his hands. What a mess this all was.

Cecil closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was slowly floating up, up, and away, looking down and seeing the small lights of Night Vale below, the specks of people moving about the dim streets as night fell. A small town in a large desert. A whole world in a single purple dot. His town.

Cecil stood up for what he hoped would be the final time for a while and exited the radio station. Outside, nothing much seemed to have happened at all. Everyone appeared to be simply going about their business. 

“Hi, Cecil!” a few people said, turning to wave to him. He waved back and nearly tripped over a young girl carefully putting worms back into the sidewalk. His phone buzzed with a text.

From: Carlos 

_ Hey, honey, do you have time to call tonight? I heard the broadcast, and you seemed pretty shaken up. _

To: Carlos

_ I’ll be okay, don’t worry about me. But I’m not going to turn down an offer of a call!  🫀 _

From: Carlos

_ Hear you tonight, then.  🫀🫀 _

Cecil smiled softly and tucked the phone back in its case. 

The sun began to set with a gentle whistling noise. Night enveloped its favorite town like a warm blanket, or maybe an orange poncho. 

Night Vale was, Cecil admitted to himself, not always a welcoming town. Maybe not even most of the time. Perhaps, on occasion, they could be said to be a “hostile and scary town”. 

But that could change, couldn’t it? Cecil had watched Night Vale change before, in ways large in small. He could watch it change again.

They all could. 

**Author's Note:**

> haha but for real im umm...considering starting a series of night vale fics? 👉👈 its a pretty cool idea imo but idk if ill actually do it. anyway i hoped you liked my fic!!


End file.
